[warning: since most of what follows was originally posted to slashdot, this entry is going to get a bit geeky, so if you have an aversion to geekitude, you might want to skip on down to the last post about television or to some of those photos to the left. thanks.]
I’ve been in the beta for a multiplayer online roleplaying game (or MMORPG) called Eve: The Second Genesis for about two weeks or so. As I love a good beta, I came into this hoping for an experience along the lines of the early days of EverQuest, when it was more about exploring and experience than the acquisition of phat plat. What I got was a very pretty game with very little to actually do.
The UI for character creation is fun enough, though I suppose one could dismiss it as a virtual version of that old Barbie head my cousin used to abuse. After picking your race and bloodline, you alter the look of your character by tilting the head to and fro, changing the eyes, applying a beard, placing a scar and so on. It’s a neat use of the 3d engine, but really all you’re doing is making a static avatar for in-game chat and to appear stamp-like in the upper-right corner of your HUD.
[see. geeky as geeky can be.]
The game itself is admittedly gorgeous. At times, it is like playing in one of those Astronomy Pictures-of-the-Day. But you know, that can get quite tedious, feeling more like a Photoshop image with too much lens flare. The ships are unique, not drawing too much from existing and standard sources like Star Wars or Star Trek and so on. The stations and jumpgates all are built to the standards set by the creating race, from rusty i-beam industrial for one to shining gold and glass for another. Out from the stations are the asteroid belts, huge hanging semi-circles of boulderous rock, around which lurk the occasional pirate.
And that’s about it.
You have two choices of action. You fight pirates or you mine asteroids. Fighting pirates is far too risky at first, so you spend a lot of time mining asteroids. So much time that many on the boards of the beta suggest having a book handy to occupy your mining time.
The comradery in the beta has been good and I’ve had a couple of good nights out in the higher yield mines with fine folks from Toronto and Europe, still awake at 4am their time when I’m just getting started at 10pm EST. The Toronto folks were interesting as they were staying home from school due to SARS concerns. Scary. But really, it all comes down to the acquisition of more cash to get a better ship to use to then get more cash.
And I won’t go into the massive bugs that still exist this late into the beta, many that result in a sudden crash to the desktop and others that have managed to lay waste to a few users’ harddrives (but not mine.) The game is set for retail release next week and I just don’t think they’re ready.
All in all, I think I prefer old Norrath to the new coldness of space…. which is convenient, as I’ve just been invited into the beta for EverQuest on Mac. And don’t worry. I won’t become an addict like so many others. I can quit any time I want. Really.
